Tower of Heaven looks and sounds as if it could be a Gameboy title: flat gray (or actually) green-scale graphics and the kind of Midi music track you'd expect from such a title. What it actually is, however, is a little Gamemaker platformer notable for one thing: a highly polished, and frustratingly difficult set of level challenges. (At least frustratingly difficult for me, but as I've noticed before, I suck at this kind of game.)
In other words, there's nothing particular innovative about the setting or the mechanics, but the level design is both excellent and extremely tight.
The story, such as it is, is that you are attempting to scale the tower of some enormously powerful being who smites you if you fail to complete each level in the time allotted. He also occasionally hands down a "Law" that increases the difficulty of solving a particular level -- e.g., "Thou shalt not move left." Naturally, the level is then designed to make getting through it a challenge with that particular rule in effect.
In short, Tower of Heaven is worth playing both for the fact that it's an enjoyable platformer in its own right, and also as an example of excellence in level design.
It's not just you...
The game's downright sadistic. I'm a sucker for the monochrome-meets-MIDI aesthetic, though.
I don't know, I managed to
I don't know, I managed to beat it, without getting too frustrated even, unlike pretty much any other masocore platformers.
Thou shalt not
Note that the actual Law is exactly "thou shalt not walk left". A VERY important distinction, really.
Not too hard.
Yep, the game wasn't really hard, especially considering how short it is. But still, I had fun playing it, and the aesthetics of it is also quite nice, even if it's starting to become a bit generic now.
Stuck
I've managed to finesse and force my way up to the point where the door has grass in front (can't touch living things) and one of the two windows is electrified for some silly reason.
I've tried hitting X in midair, but that doesn't work, and I can't see anything to interact with besides the killer window and the killer grass. Can someone help me out?
Un-Stuck
So as it turns out
Begin trap spoiler
The window wasn't electrified, I was just "touching the side of a block or wall" and getting smited.
End trap spoiler
Really fun game, I enjoyed the way the music maintained the feeling of the quest. Just one person against a tower not meant to be survived.
Apparently there are secrets and I missed both of them. One more try then I guess.
lovely
I love this game! Or at least I loved it for the 5 minutes it lasted. The idea of the book of laws is original, creative and fun. Because laws don't go away and new ones are added regularly, you immediately think "oh this is going to get ridiculous fast" which is a really fun realization to have (for me, at least). "Thou shalt not walk left." Hilariously awesome. "Thou shalt not look at the book of laws." Love it. I'd like to see this expanded into a multi-hour experience.
Negatives:
1. There are moments of completely unavoidable death that simply make you repeat what you just did. I Wanna Be The Guy pulled this off by being about that experience. Here it just feels dumb and unfair.
2. Too much dramatic storyline for such a tiny game. (probably approaches Metal Gear Solid's ratio)
3. After the book of laws is abolished, yellow blocks still kill you. Whuh?
Regarding Difficulty
Maybe I shouldn't try playing these reflex-intensive games while 36 hours into sleep deprivation. Getting the secret stuff is pretty tricky, though.